The Problem Of Water Privatization

Mexico’s water supply has been dwindling since the 1980s, when Mexico’s population more than doubled. The current problem is that the water provided to the Mexican public is not clean, as 70% of Mexico’s water bodies are contaminated. The general population is forced to try and make do with the water that they are provided with or find a private supplier who might supply cleaner water at a much higher price. The government has gone on to propose that water distribution be moved to the private sector, since the reforms needed to fix the water infrastructure would be too much for the central government. This would potentially allow for cleaner and cheaper water that what is currently provided by the Mexican government. This reform has been attempted in countries across the world, with little prevail.

Water covers 71% of the earth. Water is needed for every person to survive. Yet water is bottled up and sold for profit. Some water bottling companies are making more profit than others, and not putting the profits back into the water source they use. The big company that comes to mind is Fiji Water. While Fiji Water is making millions selling water in the U.S. the island of Fiji is suffering. Fiji Water has the government in their pocket, and does nothing to help the island nation. Fiji Water can keep their profits high by masking their flaws and making the product look as appealing as possible on store shelves.

Water scarcity is an environmental problem that reaches around the globe. This lack of water is called the World Water Crisis. In the U.S, people are privileged enough to be able to use clean water for many things. However, the U.S is effected by water scarcity as well as countries who are underdeveloped and aren 't as privileged as we are. Only 2.5 percent of Earth 's water is fresh water, of which industrial uses account for 22 percent of available fresh water, domestic use requires only 8 percent, and the rest-over two-thirds of our demand-is used for agriculture. Water is said to be a right for all living things, however, many underdeveloped countries in the world, such as Ghana or Rajasthan, are victims of corporations who come

Zuhal Yeşilyurt Gündüz in her article Water-On Women's Burdens, Humans' Rights, and Companies Profit claims that the privatization of fresh water supplies would be disastrous because water is a resource that is a necessity for life. She thinks that water should be free for the public and that is that it is wrong to charge people for such a critical resource. She states that “the commercialization of water resources has resulted in sobering problems”. Claiming that private companies have used up farmers irrigation water and entire rivers had dried (Gündüz 139). She concludes her argument by emphasizing that water not only has an effect to the poor, but on women.The author Zuhal Yeşilyurt Gündüz develops her claim by appealing to the reader's

What we gained from this research was not a thorough understanding of the legislative measures that governments are taking to provide water to the citizens within their borders. Rather, we learned the general lesson that governments, regardless of their resources or political structure, are not the most reliable or capable entities to provide for human beings

The world revolves around water. Without it, organisms would cease to exist. With that being said, humans depend on it on a daily basis. In the documentary “Thirst”, it covers the controversy of water privatization in Bolivia, India, and Stockton. All of these regions are opposed to water privatization by the powerful corporations that operate in the area. The people living in these places believe that water privatization negatively affects their control of their water, because it a human right. On the other hand, the multinational corporations believe that water is an economic resource that should be bought and sold, for profit. I believe that water should not have the ability to be privatized.

Using named examples, assess the contribution of large scale water management projects in increasing water security. 15 Water security means having access to sufficient, safe, clean and affordable water. Theoretically, the world’s poorer countries are the most water insecure, suffering from both physical and economic water scarcity. One solution to tackle water insecurity is through large scale water projects for example the Three Gorges project in China, the South-North transfer project also in China and the restoration of the Aral Sea. However there is much controversy over whether these schemes are actually sustainable and therefore beneficial in the long run. The Three Gorges da project in China blocks the Yangtze River; it cost $50

The story Thirst reflects on how global corporations like Nestle, Suez, and Veolia are rapidly purchasing local water sources such as lakes, streams, and springs. Those companies are also taking control of public water services. While trying to privatize and turn a larger profit off of water, they have manipulated and bought politicians, have gone “under the table” to make deals and undermined the democratic process by trying to deny citizens a voice in fundamental decisions about their most essential public resource. The authors ' Thirst explain the emergence of a controversial new water wars in the United States and showing how communities here are fighting this battle, often against companies headquartered overseas. The three followed water privatization battles across the United States from California to Massachusetts and from Georgia to Wisconsin, documenting the rise of public opposition to corporate control of water resources. These towns find it hard to balance a budget, so when large companies come in and offer to control the water the town looks at it as a major way to cut costs, but what it ends up costing is much more.

According to McHarg et al. eds. (2010), in the last three decades world governments used to shed the burden of capital investment, especially in sphere of water, through privatization in order to achieve more efficiency of water supplies. This approach was developed deeply in European countries such as England, which is already famous for it’s the most highly regulated water companies. This method also enables the company to concentrate on the service, management and funding of the service, whereas the local government provides water services in developing countries and cannot afford investments in large hydraulic infrastructure. Those are the “Third World” countries and the most of them are Asian. However, I want to make a significant accent on one of the industrious world’s empires – China.

The author, Maude Barlow, begins her article by stating that there is a problem concerning the world’s water and how it can affect the people’s way of living. She includes three possible outcomes that could result from how people are mistreating the water supply. Sources of freshwater are becoming scarcer as people keep polluting and depleting them. As the lack of clean freshwater decreases, the amount of children dying increases, more so than war and diseases altogether which occurs more frequently with those that are of low socioeconomic status. Those that belong to companies dealing with water exchange are taking advantage of the shortages by selling them to regular people at expensive rates; this could ultimately lead to the market’s dictating

In many water poor countries such as India and countries in the Middle East, influential water companies such as Nestle go in and take water from these areas to sell. This is also an issue that is taking place right in our backyard. The city of Sacramento, California is in its fourth year of a record drought- yet Nestle is still selfishly draining underground aquifers from the area without paying for it, only to sell it back to the same people to gain profit.

The city of Cochabamba, Bolivia put its water system up for auction in 1999. The company Aguas del Tunari promised to expand water services, in exchange the contract guaranteed the company a fifteen percent profit. The first people to question water privatization were local professionals and peasant farmers who rely on irrigation. Citizens began calling public meetings to speak their concerns. Sadly, the government ignored them and their concerns. With no disregard for the public voice, people began to protest. With that, in early 2000, the historic water wars began.

This gives way to the idea of a socially produced scarcity where corporate and private interests for short-term economic growth linked with the rise of corporate power is converting the abundance of a resource into one that is scarce (Shiva, 2002). As such, water private companies should be excluded from water management, and more efforts should be directed towards instilling a "water democracy". She argues that this dichotomy on both sides of the spectrum of the water governance versus privatization debate are a reflecting of equitable versus inequitable distribution. Water scarcity is a reflection of the users that manage it and the systems that are in place to deliver and distribute water from known aquifers. While this may not be true in more drought stressed areas of the world, in a province like Ontario, it certainly is a reflection of governance, not geographic factors. This urges for a decentralized, community-based, democratic water management under which water conservation will be politically, socio-economically, and culturally inspired rather than economically-motivated. A private regime would provide incentives for water conservation through pricing since the perception of scarcity correlates to increased prices. Problems are evident with our current governance system as well as the private sector and P3s are certainly not a

Bywater, K. (2008). Globalization, privatization, and the crisis of sustainability: Examining the global water crisis. Conference Papers -- American Sociological Association, 1.

Water is a human right, not a commodity. It is the essence of life, sustaining every living being on the planet. Without it we would have no plants, no animals, no people. However, while water consumption doubles every twenty years our water sources are being depleted, polluted and exploited by multinational corporations. Water privatization has been promoted by corporations and international lending institutions as the solution to the global water crises but the only one’s who benefit from water privatization are investors and international banks. The essential dilemma of privatization is that the profit interests of private water utilities ultimately jeopardizes the safeguarding of the human right to water. Access to clean, sufficient